A passive optical network (PON) is one system for providing network access over “the last mile.” The PON is a point-to-multipoint (P2MP) network comprised of an optical line terminal (OLT) at the central office, an optical distribution network (ODN), and a plurality of Optical Network Terminals (ONTs) at the customer premises. The PON system may comprise a control and management (C/M) plane that controls and manages the data transmissions. The C/M plane may comprise an ONT Management and Control Interface (OMCI) that manages higher layers, such as one or more service defining layers. The OMCI may model data flow between the OLT and the ONTs using a protocol-independent management information base (MIB) that comprises a plurality of managed entities (MEs), for example as described in the OMCI for Gigabit PON (GPON), International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) publication G.984.4, which is incorporated by reference as if reproduced in its entirety.
Network Edge and Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) devices, such as ONTs, are typically used on the boundary of network management domains. The CPE devices may comprise different types of equipment such as ONTs, Residential Gateways, or Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Access Multiplexers (DSLAMs). These CPE devices can vary from simple modem-like devices to complex devices that combine different networking functions. A complex device can have multiple management systems, where each management system may have a span of control referred to as a management domain.
Typically, different management domains in a Network Edge or CPE device use different interface technologies that are unique to the management domains. As such, from a management perspective, the device functionality may be divided into multiple domains, which are referred sometimes as “partner” domains. The partner domains coexist on such devices, where each domain has its own interface. To help effectively maintain such devices, network support personnel need to have the ability to collect status and performance monitoring (PM) information from one domain through its partner domain on the same device.